千里走单骑 (Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles)

(a.k.a. Menunggang Seorang Beribu-Beribu Batu - can you imagine the level of subtitling or translation quality here???)

Seems like Zhang Yi Mou went back to the genre he's best at though in my humble opinion this is not his best work in that particular genre. This movie starts well enough and I like the subtlety that he captured here. Unlike his previous 一个都不能少 and 我的父亲母亲 (which zoomed Zhang ZiYi to Ang Li's attention to cast her in 卧虎藏龙), this time around, it's not that 煽情 anymore. At least for me, the tears were not streaming down like what happened in 一个都不能少. Casting wise, it's a solo show for Ken Takakura with only small fraction of limelight stolen by the little boy called Yang Yang in the movie. Breathtaking shots of the scenic China rural area and highland coupled with accurate capturings of the characters' emotion and expression, it's a delight to watch.

As expected, the cinema was not even 10% full with only 5 audiences including me and my pal, Julia. I was grateful though that the cinema chose to show this unpopular piece in the midst of other blockbusters flooding e.g. Superman Return, Pirates 2 and 龙虎门. However, the 2-yr odd cinema's cleanliness certainly left a lot to be desired (Growball, please grow cleaner - yes, Growball is the name of the cinema).

The movie deals a lot with the theme of 遗憾. Did we allow the moment pass through us without doing something we should or at the very least treasure it? Did we refrain from doing something so right but end up regretting it for the rest of our life? I know again, it sounds cliche but there's really a message we should keep in mind. Tell the people you love that you do cox waiting will not bear any fruit or earn any interest. Show your love to them and assuring yourself it didn't matter if they do return any of them cox it's not working that way cox there's no fair trade in this world.

So, to those I love, which you know who you are, wherever you are, je taime.

No Article 11 Forum???

I was kinda disappointed with the latest decision by our big bro to ban all the forum on Article 11. It was to the same effect as refusing to live telecast the parliament proceedings because we, Malaysians who live in a country which gained her independence almost half a decades ago are considered NOT MATURE enough to watch it??????????????????????????

Just as we thought the freedom of speech has been taken a few steps forward, we were deported back by leaps and bounds backward again.

What a way to celebrate our 49th Merdeka Day!

Ramblings from the hotel room..........

Writing from my hotel room outstation trip….. (Delayed publish....................)

As usual, TV is the only saving grace when you are having outstation trip, especially when the city/town is not new to you or you do not have any transportation to roam around..

And this time around, the hotel I stayed in the meow city only provide 8 channels altogether and they bored me to death. Mostly Chinese stations, I mean real Chinese channels from China, I was kinda delighted when they have MTV Chinese version. They showed a show called VH1 Greatest Teens Stars or something like that……

It’s a show where they traced back some of the most memorable teens characters in the history of TV and movies and what happened now to the actors who play them. Hosted by Debbie Gibson, it’s kinda informative hahaha….

I remembered some of the actors featured notably Patrick Dempshey (guess I got the spelling wrong), Helen Hunt and Jessica Biel (they only showed around 10 in the episode I watched). I only know about the Patrick guy when he recently star in Grey’s Anatomy. Great show and what a great transformation of him; from a great nerd to a manly actor. I wonder will there be any kind of transformation similar to that which will happen to me hahahhahaha……

Another one is Helen Hunt, rupa-rupanya she was also once upon a time teenage star! Her transformation to me is something like what happen to Maggie Cheung though I believe Maggie won more award than her. Both of them are testament to stereotype breaking, flower vase can act too……

And that brings me back to my own memory lane……
What TV programme I watch during my teenager years??? Beverly Hills 90210, Baywatch (not qualify as teenage series… I know….) what else??? Anyway, what else to watch tat time when it’s only TV1 and TV2 available???? OK… Beverly Hills??? Who else is left??? Shannon Doherty??? She was not even in Charmed now!!!!

OK…. Next I will talk about the Chinese ones…..

Sunset Charity Run Pics 3

The Sabah athletes who did us proud.

The special olympic champions - another proud achievements of Sabah.

The Unduk Ngadau (Beauty Pageant) winners of 2006.

The finale where all the guests of honor and organizer serenades the crowd.

Atama and the boys with their acrobatic street dance moves.

Sunset Charity Run Pics 2

Waiting anxiously for the lucky draw.

Some were lying down at the finishing point and no... tat's not me.

Glistening light from the night golf lights.

Typical photo with the sunset and a sweet couple cuddling on the bench.

Di ufuk senja.....

Di ufuk senja... di balik bayangan kapal di limbungan........

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The photographer being photographed.

Sunset Charity Run Pics

Marina Club : The sunset is spectacular

Entrance to Sutera Harbour : Nice Silhoutte

Entrance to Sutera Harbour : Nice Shades

Another nice sunset color tone

Running along the Main Road

WC Fever is not over yet; Kids playing in the site for the upcoming Harbour Square

Running to the Check Point at the Roundabout near Wawasan Plaza

King of the Road : The whole road was being blocked just for the runner. Wawasan Plaza on the right and Minibus Station on the left while the sun was setting at the back.....

Sunset Charity Run

It was my virgin run haha..... RM17 for last year's Run T-Shirt with a tacky name card, it doesn't really matter cox everything will go for charity.

It was started with a disaster cox I was late. I had to parked someplace very far from the starting point and the runners were set off when I was on the way walking to the starting point. The evil in me asked me to join the crowd and pretend that I run from the starting point. However, the stupid conscience in me pushed me to the starting point, believing that the organizers will register the runners first. But how wrong was I!!! Reaching the starting point, I was being ushered to start the run straight away and I was cursing loudly in my heart!

There were 2 check point, one was just like 3 minutes walk from the place I parked my car and the we were handed a small 3cm x 3cm size of manila card!!! And there's no chop or whatsoever kind of verification too!

Then I reliazed no one is interested in competing with each other cox it's a charity run. The only perks for the runners who finish the whole run is the lucky draw in the end..... So, I decided to just finish the run and enjoy the nice view (it's sunset run mate!).



Upon finishing, we got to roam around the Sutera Harbour Marina Club which the poor soul like me will never get a chance to get in since it's a membership club. Nice club with great facilities and the sunset view is superb.

The show started with lots of performances from the local music groups and it's entertaining. Hosted by the Traxx.fm DJs, ScamBoy and GreenMan, the show was entertaining. Notable performances were from Atama and the Boys (though I didn't managed to listened to his rendition of his signature tune blending Kadazan and hip hop music) and the evergreen The Beatles (KK version). Personally, I find that the latter's performance strike me more (hey, I'm old anyway). However, the slight pause in between the songs by the Beatle spoiled the mood brought on by the evergreen Beatles tune. Maybe they're not that young anymore but I guess the showmanship is just a bit slacking. Another thing was their song selection (the Simon Cowell in me starts to come into pic) which was not that mass-orientated.

Ending with nothing from the lucky draw as I expected, the evening was well-spent and a fun one.

Your mountain? Your green door?

I was sorting out my travel photos which was being neglected for almost a year since I finished my 10 days travelling in Italy last year mid-May.

Stumbled upon this picture and I remembered the free tour guide, an Italian lady whose English never fail to tickle me in a funny way. She pronounced everything plural "s" with sa, e.g. a lot of friends"a", these used to be streets"a"

OK, back to the pic. This door is actually a backdoor of a church. Before the Roman empire fell, this same door was actually the front door of a temple; that explains the pillar structure. So, once the entrance was being converted into the backdoor.

Though it sounds cliche, it reminded me of what Ang Lee famously quoted when interviewed by the reporters , "每個人的心裡都有一坐斷背山, 只是沒有上過去". Be it the mountain or this green door of the temple/church......

Imperfect

I can't remember which museum did I take this photo... maybe it's in the Vatican City.

It's beheaded, the arms were chopped and the lower legs were gone. The brain is inside the head, controlling our mind and in the control system for those control engineers, it's like the CONTROLLER. The legs and arms were the SENSOR and at some certain times, the ACTION itself. Oh... wat am I trying to say???

Back to the sculpture, I am not sure whether it was sculpted in that way or it's a remains for some famous ones. I never really like Andy Lau's song but there's one I think is quite nice, i.e. 缺陷美. THE BEAUTY OF IMPERFECTION

The world's happiest country is VANUATU!!! Gotta learn more about it. And COLUMBIA? Mafia + Drugs = Happiness?

Wish you all HAPPY AND HEALTHY ALWAYS. If there's some glitches somewhere sometime, take it and learn to appreciate the beauty of imperfection.

Thinking..... thinking..... and thinking.......

Have been thinking a lot recently....

So, am I depressed?

Nope... cox I enjoyed thinking....

With a cup of coffee, with some nice soothing music as background, lying comfortably on some couch.....

OK, of cox sans the pose above...

Oh yea..... it's movie night and it's Pirates of the Carribean 2 : The Dead Man's Chest

What the World Needs Now.........

is love sweet love..............

That's the title of the classic by Burt Bacharach which is so appropriate.

June 6. The Omen
July 7. The London tube bombing.

I wonder what will happen in August 8?
And there's a plot to bomb the tunnel in NY?

What can I say? Seize the moment and enjoy every second of it.